His Name is Jesus – Part 1
March 3, 2002
Big Idea: An authentic biblical community submits to the authority of Jesus.
INTRODUCTION
A. When I was a kid, we had a way of putting someone in their place if they got a little bossy. Let’s say on the playground at recess a big game of kickball is being formed. Jimmy is a boy on one of the teams, and he thinks he knows a lot about kickball. He’s telling all of the other kids on his team what to do. “You! Play 2nd base on defense.” Later he says, “After you catch a fly ball throw the ball to me!” And reprimands a teammate, “You should have kicked the ball to the left side of field!” And on it goes. Until finally, Susie, a member of his team gets fed up and says, “Who died and made you boss?”
B. The TV show Survivor kicked off again this past week with Survivor Marquesas. It was interesting to see people’s roles within their tribes start to emerge immediately after arriving at the island. The Rotu tribe couldn’t get a fire started the first night. However one lady named Kathy thought she knew how to make a fire. She’d say, “Not like that. You’re doing that wrong. Like this!” The look on the faces of her teammates seemed to suggest, “Who made you boss?”
C. When Jesus entered Jerusalem for what would be the last week of his life he immediately went to the Jewish Temple.
And there he engaged in a little purification demonstration. He overturned the tables of the money changers and drove out all the people who were selling animals for sacrifice at unfair prices. They set up their tables and their cages and their market stalls in the area of the temple that was called the court of the Gentiles. So these non-Jewish people who wanted to worship God were greatly hindered from using the temple for its intended purpose. Jesus single-handedly drove out this crowd while saying “My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a ‘den of robbers.’” (Luke 19:46)
TRANSITION: Quite understandably, this little incident brought about some questions on Monday morning.
READ V. 1-2
1One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. 2“Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”
1. WHO GAVE JESUS THIS AUTHORITY? (v. 1-8)
A big group of Jewish leaders came and found Jesus to ask him, “Who authorized you to do what you did in the temple? We have the temple police force stationed to protect its sanctity.”
In other words, “Jesus, who died and made you boss?”
“Who told you that you could act like this?”
That question is behind all human behavior. When you refine any issue down to its essentials, what you have left is the whole issue of authority in life.
Why do you act the way you do? How do you justify what you do and say?
Whether we are have taken the time to examine the issue or not, something compels us – something governs our decisions. When we deal with the issue of authority, we are dealing with what is absolutely basic and fundamental to all human behavior.
Jesus’ answer to the Jewish leaders is amazing…
Verse 3 – I will also ask you a question. Tell me, John’s baptism – was it from heaven or of human origin? (TNIV)
He’s referring to John the Baptist. Notice He asked about the baptism of John, not the ministry of John. John’s baptism was something new, different and startling. It was something that had never occurred before. The Jewish priests had many ritual washings, but these were always performed in the temple. John wasn’t a priest, yet he baptized – and he did it out in the open – in rivers and streams.
Because John’s baptism was something new, it would immediately raise the question, “By what authority do you give us this new ritual in Israel?”
So Jesus asks, “What do you think of this innovation of John’s? Was is from God, or did it have earthly origins?” It was a question to see if they were capable of recognizing God’s authority when they saw it.
Read v. 5-6
5They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ 6But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
No matter what they said, they were trapped.
Read v. 7-8
7So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”
8Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
By their answer, they revealed that they really didn’t care whether John’s baptism was from God or not.
Jesus says, “If you cannot recognize divine authority when you see it in action, no amount of argument will convince you of its presence.”
Authority is often questioned. Maybe we do this too – even when we look at Jesus. Perhaps at times we’ve wondered what gives him the right to state things in absolutes, to provide moral and ethical standards, to speak of judgment for disobedience. How can we be so sure he has the right to do these things?
TRANSITION: In this very interesting chapter of the Bible, Jesus lays out the basis for his authority through a series of controversial encounters with Jewish religious leaders.
He proceeds to tell them this story: Read v. 9-15
9He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
13“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
14“But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
It isn’t difficult to catch Jesus’ allegory. The owner of the vineyard represents God. The tenants are the Jewish religious leaders throughout history. The servants represent God’s prophets, and the son is none other than Jesus.
So Jesus boldy describes to them who they are and what they are doing. He even realizes they want to kill him.
And indirectly he answers their question. “By what authority do I do these things? Here is my authority: I am the owner of the vineyard. I am the rightful heir to it. I am the beloved Son sent by the Father. You’ve killed the prophets and beaten those who came from God. Now, here I am, the Son.”
He makes it clear…
2. HIS AUTHORITY IS BEYOND THAT OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS (v. 9-19)
The authority of the false religious leaders was limited in its DURATION.
Read v. 15b-19
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “May this never be!”
17Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone‘?
18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
19The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
Jesus says a time is coming when God will decisively act. And 40 years later, when Roman armies surrounded the city of Jerusalem and captured it. They led the chief priests, scribes and elders away in chains into captivity. God did exactly what he said he would.
J.B. Phillips once said, The “powers-that-be” will soon be “the powers-that-have been.” No human power is lasting. But…
Jesus’ authority LASTS FOREVER.
The religious leaders of the day were willing to reject the authority of Jesus. They didn’t realize he was the capstone or the cornerstone – the foundation for all of life. His teachings and his offer of salvation are the most important of all building blocks. Those who reject him and his authority will be doomed.
TRANSITION: The basis for Jesus’ authority is further explained in the next section.
Read v. 20-22
20Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
Great question! Horrible motives. Should you pay taxes to a power that uses them wrongly? In other words is it right to pay your good hard-earned money to a government that wastes it or puts it to a purpose that you adamantly oppose?
The question is still applicable today.
They tried to catch Jesus between two positions they considered mutually exclusive and irreconcilable. Roman taxes totaled over 1/3 of a person’s income. The current teaching said God alone was Israel’s king. It would treason to pay tribute to anyone else. “Should God’s people living on God’s land give a portion of its produce to a pagan?” No!
However, any discouragement to pay taxes would bring sharp retribution from the governor.
So if Jesus said pay the taxes – the Jews would label him a traitor.
But if Jesus said paying taxes was wrong, he’d be labeled a rebel – and his enemies would have grounds for his arrest.
He would either alienate government officials or the pious Jews who opposed foreign domination. The questioners thought they had him trapped. Listen to his answer:
Read v. 23-26
23He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24“Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”
25“Caesar’s,” they replied.
He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
26They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
Jesus stated a principle, not a compromise. It is something the Apostle Paul writes about in greater detail in Romans 13.
To give what the government requires does not stand opposed to religious duty. In fact doing what the government requires is part of our worship to God.
Why?
3. HIS AUTHORITY IS BEYOND THAT OF THE GOVERNMENT (v. 20-26)
The government’s authority is limited in its SCOPE.
Romans 13 says the government is ordained by God, but it deals only with a part of our lives. Government has certain powers over our bodies – it can regulate our conduct to some degree. But there is one area over which secular power has no control. The human spirit. Government can try perhaps, but it cannot successfully legislate whom we worship, who governs our conscience and who constitutes the ultimate authority of our lives. The government’s authority is limited in its scope, but…
Jesus’ authority reaches the human SPIRIT.
TRANSITION: Then Jesus is confronted with still another form of human authority. That is our thinking our rational minds.
Read v. 27-33
27Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30The second 31and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32Finally, the woman died too. 33Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
This is an utterly ridiculous question. It is asked by a Jewish sect called the Sadducees – their distinguishing characteristic was their denial of an afterlife or a belief in the resurrection. I had a Sunday School teacher that taught us how we could remember these guys. She said, “The Sadducees didn’t believe in eternal life so that is why they were sad, you see.” It must have worked because I still remember it to this day.
The story is absurd and contrived – concocted just to trap Jesus. He could have brushed it off and joked about the foolishness of brother number 7 who should have taken his cue from brothers 1 through 6 before marrying this lady. But he didn’t. Instead, he answers them like this:
Read v. 34-40
34Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
39Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” 40And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
The Sadducees assumed that believing in a resurrection would involve a sexual reunion with one’s earthly partners.
Who will this woman live with and sleep with in heaven? Will each of the 7 brothers share her? Will she stay in a different house each day of the week?
But Jesus responded along these lines: It is not legitimate to project earthly conditions onto the future state of being. He moves their question from the issue of marriage to the nature of the resurrection itself.
Whose wife will she be? That’s assuming that earthly forms of intimacy and union such as sexual intercourse are the gold standard by which closeness is to be judged. Jesus disagrees.
He implies, “You have narrowed life down to a very limited view – one which you can rationally understand. And you say that is all there is. So in your thinking, if there were an afterlife it would have to include the best elements of this life – like marriage and sex. What if I told you in heaven there was a way of relating to a person that was infinitely more wonderful than earthly sex?”
This is why many Christians through the ages whose spouses have died have been willing to marry again. Because there won’t be such arguments in heaven. Will we still be married in heaven? Sounds like Jesus says we’ll be even closer! How can we fathom it?
Because…
4. HIS AUTHORITY IS BEYOND OUR RATIONAL MINDS (v. 27-40)
Our own reason has limited DIMENSIONS.
Our minds are bound by time and earthly experinces.
Jesus’ authority is beyond TIME AND SPACE.
God has knowledge that people do not have.
Isaiah 55:9 says it well – As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
TRANSITION: His examples concerning the extent of his authority show us that he did the things he did because God gave Him the authority to do them. He said his authority was beyond religious authority, beyond government authority and even beyond the authority of our thinking – our rational minds. So with all this authority…
5. WHO IS JESUS? (v. 41-44)
Here is how Jesus brings the matter to a conclusion.
Read v. 41-44
41Then Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David? 42David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:
“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
43 until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”’
44David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”
The Jews all understood that the Messiah – the coming one – the Christ would be a descendant of King David.
But Jesus cites Psalm 110 – where David makes a strange statement about the Messiah – “The Lord said to my Lord.”
In the first instance Lord is the Hebrew word “Yahweh,” the sacred name of God. In the second instance Lord is the Hebrew word “Adonai” – often used as a substitute name for God in the Old Testament.
So the statement from Psalm 110 could very well read, “God said to my God, sit at my right hand…”
So Jesus asks, “Why in the world would David call the Messiah his son or descendant Lord and God?”
The only meaning that makes sense is that the Messiah would be more than just a man. He would be God.
After his resurrection, Jesus spells it out in Matthew 28:18.
Matthew 28:18 – All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Why does he have all this authority?
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is God.
“Jesus, who died and made you boss?”
Looks like Jesus would say, “I am God. Technically, if you choose to use those terms, I am the boss. And by the way, since you’re wondering, I died. And I rose again.”
TRANSITION: What would Jesus want us today to learn from this portion of his life?
The Key application for us is…
OBEDIENCE
The issue is will we or will we not obey Jesus?
Will we look to him as the absolute authority?
Will we allow him to be in charge of the totality of our lives?
Our spending, our attitudes, our relationships, our challenges?
Will we permit him to be in charge of the church?
I have asked you a number of times over the past year, who is in charge of the Christian Church of Clarendon Hills?
The answer is Jesus. Jesus is in charge.
A church where no one stands alone is a church that follows and is in love with Jesus Christ.
ILLUS – Illus. A ship’s captain looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send this message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south.”
A prompt message came in return, “Alter your course 10 degrees north.”
Captain angered that his command had been ignored sent a second message, “Alter your course 10 degrees south – I am a captain!” A message came back in return, “Alter your course 10 degrees north – I am seaman 3rd class Jones!”
The captain sent a third message knowing the fear it would evoke, “Alter your course 10 degrees south – I am a battleship!” Then the reply came, “Alter your course 10 degrees north – I am a lighthouse!”
An authentic biblical community submits to the authority of Jesus.
(User note: Part 2 of this series is called, "Sir, Your Table is Ready.")
